Dos bastidores à estratégia: a atuação da oficial de inteligência Vera Atkins como referencial histórico das competências de inteligência e gestão no Secretariado Executivo

Abstract

This study analyzes the work of Vera Atkins, the daughter of Jewish immigrants who would become an intelligence officer serving the United Kingdom during the Second World War, within the context of the Special Operations Executive (SOE). The study seeks to understand how her involvement in information management, secrecy, recruitment, agent monitoring, and decision-making support can be interpreted as a historical example of functional convergences with competencies valued in contemporary Executive Secretariat. The research is qualitative, bibliographic, and historical-interpretative, developed through a historical case study based on books, articles, institutional records, and secondary studies on Vera Atkins, the SOE, strategic intelligence, information management, and Executive Secretariat. The analysis was organized around interpretative axes related to information flow, secrecy, reliability, decision-making support, and operational leadership. The results indicate that Atkins’s work should not be understood as the direct origin of contemporary Executive Secretariat, but as a historical experience that reveals practices of mediation, organization, protection of sensitive data, and strategic support in a context of risk and uncertainty. It is concluded that her trajectory contributes to broadening the reflection on the strategic role of Executive Secretariat, especially regarding information management, ethics, advisory support, and performance in complex organizational contexts.